2009/7/31 stevertigo stvrtg@gmail.com:
It occurs to me that when people donate money to something, it is to some degree with an expectation that the recipient entity grows to eventually gain a certain kind of financial self-sufficiency. Is this not also the case with Wikimedia and many charitable donations to it?
-Steven
Nope. Many charities of various sizes rely on year to year donations. Financial self-sufficiency is mostly limited to various internet projects that manage to replace donations with ads and merchandise.